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Inside the Jonesboro Cafeteria: Bringing in the Money with Familiar Foods
A few months ago, Hester Dye received boxes of beautiful, plump blackberries from the USDA. She was delighted — the berries were as big as her thumb — and she hoped her students would enjoy eating them for lunch.
But the kids in Jonesboro Public Schools, where Dye directs the school lunch program, didn’t touch the berries. Determined not to let the fruit go to waste, Dye and her staff made a blackberry cobbler. Still, half of it ended up in the trash. “They didn’t know what it was,” Dye said. “They weren’t familiar with it.”
Students’ familiarity with certain foods has always driven Dye’s menu. When she started working in the Jonesboro cafeteria 37 years ago, students ate home-cooked meals with their families, and that’s what they expected for lunch at school. Dye served soup, lasagna and meatloaf, because that’s what students were used to. Today, Dye serves students who have grown up with heat-and-serve entrees and fast food, and her lunch offerings have changed to accommodate their tastes.
“We’ve taken all the lasagna and meatloaf off the menu because the kids don’t know what that stuff is anymore,” Dye said. “They won’t eat it.”
Instead, Dye offers the items they will eat. Her menu runs heavy on mini corndogs, chicken nuggets and stuffed-crust pizza — the foods students are familiar with from restaurants and TV commercials.
It seems like Dye has a captive audience, as every one of her students receives a free lunch. Most meal programs depend on paying students for a large chunk of their revenue, so they have to craft menus that will convince kids to bring lunch money instead of brown-bagging it. That often means embracing the fast-food fare kids like. With all of her students entitled to free meals, it sounds like it would be easier for Dye to offer foods that encourage good eating habits.
But Dye says her students won’t eat foods they’re not used to, even if they’re free. If she were to offer an unfamiliar entrée, she would probably serve 10 percent fewer meals. And since her revenue comes from federal per-meal reimbursements, she needs to serve as many meals as she can. “That would not be good for the budget,” she said. “Our livelihood depends on those per-meal reimbursements.”
So even though it doesn’t encourage healthy eating habits, fast-food fare dominates Dye’s menu. Entrees this month included cheeseburgers, hotdogs and chicken strips. French fries and batter bite fries made an appearance about once a week.
“I don’t think it’s good to give them pizza every day,” Dye said. “But that’s what they want. We’ve got to get them to come in and eat because otherwise we don’t get the money.”
Dye could offer all the healthy, home-style items she wants. But just like the blackberries, the unfamiliar items wouldn’t end up on students’ trays. Faced with a tight budget and kids raised on fast food, she’s better off sticking to pizza and chicken nuggets.
May 28th, 2009 at 4:23 am
Very depressing to hear that from someone with so much experience in the school lunch program. The kids in my “food appreciation” classes at a private elementary school will try all kinds of things where they are involved in making the food in a group setting. Recently they wolfed down ceviched–imagine kids asking for seconds on raw tilapia! Perhaps it’s true what Alice Waters says, that we need a radical new approach to school lunch.
May 28th, 2009 at 6:23 am
Yes, we do need a new system. When I worked on an organic farm, students from private elementary schools would come for week-long field trips. They tried all kinds of new foods, and lots of healthy, vegetarian food - sourdough breads, plain yogurt with maple syrup mixed in, all kinds of vegetables, vegetarian soups. As they were already coming from affluent households, they usually tried the new foods. It’s much easier to get children who come from homes that encourage trying new things to eat differently; we need to find ways for the rest of America (and its children) to change. Would children stop eating all together if only healthy meals were served in schools, day after day? Or perhaps they would eventually try them out.
May 28th, 2009 at 6:36 am
This is why nutrition and food education need to go hand in hand with improving school lunch menus. If kids are introduced slowly to foods; first encouraged to touch the food, then smell it, next give it a lick and finally take a small bite to taste it, they are much more likely to give it a chance. It is sad that these items aren’t part of their home food culture but they need to be introduced somewhere- school!
May 28th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Hester Dye: Food Education! Food Education! Food Education!
Let kids be curious and play with their food… take them to the kitchen…. teach them about blackberries…how they are grown… bring in a plant… taste a berry…have them see that they are delicious! Make a field trip and pick the berries… or plant some of the (mystery) foods around the cafeteria… so that kids can see they grow in the ground and don’t come in plastic bags or outer space.
Simply putting them in a dish or a dessert when the children don’t know what they are is tragic! If Dye believes kids don’t know about food or home style foods…she has permission to teach them.. Share her passion! …or have someone who knows how… teach them… isn’t this a school? Make it fun! Kids will be thrilled to learn if someone took the time! Let’s figure out how to get food back in the curriculum!
To be fair I realize the intention of this post is to demonstrate that people in charge of our school cafeterias are not equipped to engage their eaters and serve their best health needs… Here is hoping that all of our discussions circling this conversation will create something!
May 29th, 2009 at 4:32 am
[...] the embattled school cafeteria manager who must make some difficult choices. In order to keep enough kids moving through her lunch line, [...]
May 29th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Wow, definitely makes you think about the link between socio-economic status and obesity rates in this country… and the role the government is apparently playing to keep this positive feedback loop in place. Alternatively, school lunch programs are clearly an area in which government policy could achieve far-reaching change in terms of national health issues– I think it would be hard to overestimate the wide-ranging benefits of establishing healthy eating habits in students at a young age.
June 12th, 2009 at 10:40 am
As a Foodservice Director I am dissappointed to see the comments of Donna’s post! I spend a large portion of my time in the classrooms, sitting on Healthy Youth committees and grant writing to try to improve the education of the students about the origin of food and the NSLP. I am at a very economically depressed district (53% Free/Reduced) and I must say that the students here are reluctant to try new things- it takes us upwards of 15 times to win a large population of the students over with new menu items. Unfortunately most disticts can not afford 15 tries with decreased participation numbers- there goes the bottom line. I suggest that everyone check out the NSLP regulations to see what directors have to provide your children with each meal and you will understand the challenges are great! It is almost economically impossible at this point, we need serious reform! I have been dilligently studying the works of Alice Waters and will be implementing a sustainable garden program and fresh fruit and vegetable program in our district (thanks to grant money) in 2009-2010. Hopefully we can change the mind-set and educate our students with these programs and in turn I hope they will embrace a heathier eating habit!